1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to firearms and, more specifically, to apparatus for assisting the aiming of firearms, and in particular to an apparatus of minimal expense to be utilized at night with a flashlight for assisting the aiming of a handgun with a light beam.
2. Disclosure Statement
For over eighty years, proposals have been made for assisting the aiming of firearms with light beams or light spots on targets. Reference may for instance, be had to U.S. Pat. Nos. 689,547, 894,306, 1,149,705, 1,452,651, l,826,004, 1,993,979, 2,017,585, 2,844,710 and 2,912,566, proposing clamping a flashlight or incandescent lamp with lens, reflector arrangement and on-off switch or trigger switch and external or internal battery to a handgun, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,010,019 and 3,974,585, British Patent No. 5029, Swiss Patent Nos. 29,708 and 66,753, French Patent No. 1,015,421, and German Patent Publication No. 1,926,337, which also propose employment of electric incandescent lamps for providing aiming marks on firearm targets or on an optical sight.
Further proposals were spawned by the development of laser diodes comparable in size and ruggedness to small incandescent light bulbs as may be seen from U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,764. The utility of laser diodes as aiming devices was, however generally limited to marksmanship trainer, boresight alignment, weapon simulator and similar applications, as may, for instance, be seen from U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,633,285, 3,782,832, 3,898,747, 3,938,262 and 3,995,376. An infrared-light hit indicator apparatus is apparent from U.S. Pat. No. 3,104,478, and an electronic target game from U.S. Pat. No. 3,294,401.
Further references include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,427,042, 2,085,732 and 2,597,565 disclosing methods of completing the electric circuit when the flashlight element is added, U.S Pat. No. 2,209,524 showing flashlight holders engaging a recess in a flashlight body or providing a transverse pin between spaced pistol grip bars for flashlight mounting purposes, U.S. Pat. No. 2,314,061 disclosing a tongue-type flashlight mounting, U.S. Pat. No. 2,450,584 for flashlight attachment for small arms, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,222,511 and 4,542,447 showing dual switching means, and mounting systems for flashlights on firearms, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,739,167 disclosing also remote switching means for firearm-mounted lighting units.
Advanced laser beam aim assistance systems have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,313,272 and 273. While these systems perform excellently, they naturally are rather expensive and therefore beyond the reach of many police departments or citizens.
It therefore became the goal of this invention to provide a simple yet highly effective night shooting aid or device normally residing on a flashlight of the type used by many police departments, which device is configured to receive a handgun or other such weapon, that is to be quickly inserted on a clip member located on the device only when contact with a felon is likely.